(STICKY) Govt’s stance on windfall tax is absurd - analyst

COMMENT - Also see this article with Sibanze Simuchoba here.

Govt’s stance on windfall tax is absurd - analyst
By By Maluba Jere
Sun 02 Jan. 2011, 03:59 CAT

A POLITICAL analyst has described as absurd the government's refusal to heed to calls to re-introduce the windfall tax to help the country benefit from the current surge in international copper price.

Sibanze Simuchoba said it is regrettable that the government is insisting on doing away with windfall tax, saying it was acting as a flanking of imperialism by insisting on doing so.

He said the stance taken by the government leads one to conclude that it has joined the club of those African governments which he termed as commission-earning bourgeoisies for a few million dollars that may be placed in individual accounts.

“On this part alone, whatever good the government can claim to have done during 2010, it pales into insignificance because windfall tax is a must,” he said.

“...what is critical is that Zambia must earn much more than it is earning now for copper which we have in abundance and the price has reached nearly an all-time high of over US $ 9,000 per tonne.”

Simuchoba said the government had sacrificed one of a few opportunities international capitalism has availed the people of Zambia.

He said he felt strongly that if the government did not take heed on the issue, then its mandate to preside over the public affairs of the country should be as good as withdrawn.

And Simuchoba said there is no reason for imagining that the coming year will be better than the last. He said as the country goes to the polls this year, it was every citizen's wish to have free and fair elections.

Simuchoba said it was unfortunate that very few people registered as voters, saying the government could have done more.

“We have a lot of eligible voters who were left out. First of all, there was no real sensitisation and the issuance of National Registration Cards is done in a conspiratory manner and discourages many from acquiring them,” he said.

“There is always something discouraging to young people - the insistence on villages and chiefs where one comes from and for people born and have lived far away from their fathers and chiefs, they just tend to stay away from acquiring them.”